Some Cambridge streets link back hundreds of years. But in October 2019, the corner of Race and Muir Streets became the gateway to a craft dating from an even farther distant past. That’s when Michelle Follett opened Textile Teachings, a veritable weaving wonderland.
From the outset it successfully beckoned tourists to venture in and explore. But after just six months, the Covid-19 health emergency placed the fledgling enterprise under lock down.
“I didn’t know I was supposed to include a pandemic in my original business plan,” Follett laughed, recalling her abruptly changed circumstances.
Thanks to helpful local and state officials, a supportive fellowship of Main Street merchants, and an innate ability to creatively pivot, Follett’s shop still looms as one of downtown’s more uniquely inviting establishments, welcoming in the merely curious as well as the serious artisan, and many in between.
When a grandmother reserved three days of weaving time with her granddaughter, her grandson asked to join them. After a young acquaintance, experiencing a rough patch in life, showed up and tried weaving, it quickly became a sustaining lifeline for him. And her “Beta” student (her second one), once a novice, is now so eager to have more time to devote to weaving, she can’t wait to retire.
For the past three months Follett has opened her doors for a free “fiber fun” event, Second Saturday Sharing. Walk ins have experienced creating paper sheets from vegetative pulp, indigo hand dying, and a community weave. Beyond bringing people into the shop, the mini workshops help expose people to art in a low key but enjoyable way. Best of all, according to Follett, is getting to see the smiles on participants faces. Having discovered art on her own relatively later in life, she’s excited to help bring others to it.
Her motto and modus operandi, “See it, Do it, Teach it, is literally written on the wall of the shop for all to see. The walls also serve as a de facto gallery, displaying fiber creations by Heidi Wetzel and other artists.
Nearly everywhere within the expansive interior, a smorgasbord of what Follet playfully calls “eye candy” abounds. There are looms of literally every size, design, and shape, from hand- held to tabletop to ergo dynamic to computerized. There’s spool after spool of thread in a banquet of colors “beyond the rainbow” some from a two-woman Idaho outfit which calls itself “Lunatic Fringe.” Wool hand dyed and spun, plus a specialized line sourced from vintage cashmere sweaters, hangs artfully festooned on display. Fair trade woven scarves plus felt ornaments in charming bird, sloth, and gnome designs crafted by Guatemalan women as well as packaged weaving kits are sprinkled throughout the store, as well.
Prior to Covid, Follett envisioned offering larger group classes on specific calendar days. But the health and safety protocols required after reopening effectively transformed the experience to a one on one meet up with individually arranged times. She’s enjoyed the opportunity to experience individual teaching and the flexibility provided to her students, one of whom travels from Chestertown.
In the popular beginner’s course new weavers choose between cotton or wool thread plus pick their color and pattern. As they learn, she implements ever increasing challenges to help them master the many basic elements of loom and thread.
Follett also provides more advanced instruction for experienced weavers hoping to flex and grow their skills. Currently completing the final stages of an intensive five-year Master Weaver program, her own repertoire now includes six-foot tapestries. Undertaken initially to master a course requirement, she fell in love with creating them.
Follett’s personal journey from the worlds of education and business to weaving, and from suburban Chicago (Oak Park) to Cambridge reflects a tapestry of sorts, replete with accidental zigs and zags resulting in a gratifying pattern.
Two weeks after earning her K through 8 teaching degree she accepted a tough to turn down job offer from a software company she’d worked for. A keen attention to detail and an eye for spotting problems were key aspects of her rewarding but sometimes stressful quality assurance career.
About 17 years ago, awaiting an outbound flight at the airport, she happened to see a weaving program in the waiting area TV screen. Returning home, still intrigued by what she’d seen, Follett scoured the Yellow Pages (that earlier era’s Google) with no luck until the day her (then) husband returned from the hardware store with news of a weaving shop behind it. “We got right back in the car, and I immediately asked about taking classes,” Follett recalled.
While those first lessons were less than fruitful, she persisted, entranced by the exacting, challenging art form. Rooted in repetitive patterns painstakingly achieved, weaving skills were in some ways reminiscent of mathematics and computers, she found. The practice itself offered a meditative and restorative respite from the world. Before long, the past time became a fulfilling way to start the day, providing sanctuary at a busy day’s end.
After deciding to retire 10 years ago, Hawaii was among the relocation sites on her radar. Dorchester County, though, held a special appeal for her husband, a “boy from the bay,” and the couple settled on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Initially hoping to offer weaving lessons from her home, space limitations and household distractions led her to explore an outside location. After going through the property at Race and Muir three times, she determined it contained a big enough “footprint” to house multiple looms, each requiring several feet surrounding them.
“Jack”, Follett’s first loom, sits by the front window, where she often creates rag rugs from repurposed material. A bit farther back room has been made for her latest loom, one she and devoted protege DeVonte Perry traveled to New Hampshire to disassemble and transport back. The two quickly reassembled the behemoth currently called “Daphne.” (Follett’s home loom, “Beatrice” aka “The Beast”, is so massive she’s required to climb inside to reach the bench seat.)
Content to take her weaving life one day at a time, she admits to hoping help create a viable weaving community here. She’d also love to be able to offer within the shop a place where students can dye their own thread.
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Debra Messick is a retired Dorchester County Public Library associate and lifelong freelance writer. A transplanted native Philadelphian, she has enjoyed residing in Cambridge MD since 1995.
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